Has anyone tried running the line out of a Suhr RL or similar to a SS power amp like the Duncan Power Block for bedroom playing?

Soundstorm

Soundstorm

Well-known member
I just sold my old attenuator, but since I already have the Suhr RL I was thinking of trying this out instead of shelling out for another attenuator. Has anyone tried it and did it work well? I can and do play through my studio monitors with IRs but sometimes if I'm just riffing and messing around I prefer to go through my old Marshall cabs.
 
acceptance said:
What’d you get rid of and why?
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TAD Silencer. Good attenuator, but for some reason on the variable setting (the bedroom volume setting), the treble and bass EQ don't work by design. So once you choke it off that much it can sound a little dark.
 
Soundstorm said:
I just sold my old attenuator, but since I already have the Suhr RL I was thinking of trying this out instead of shelling out for another attenuator. Has anyone tried it and did it work well? I can and do play through my studio monitors with IRs but sometimes if I'm just riffing and messing around I prefer to go through my old Marshall cabs.
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It's very nice to have the ability to load down your amp to line level and run it through some effects (stereo preferably) and then into a power amp and through your 4x12. The only way to fly in my opinion.
 
Does the Suhr RL have a Line Out Level control for the Line Out? If not, you are sort of at the mercy of how much power the tube amp is delivering for the level of your Line Out signal. My reactive load is a Rivera and it doesn’t have a Line Out Level control. So my cranked Super Lead yielded a really hot Line Out level. My solution was to use a second speaker cable to a Suhr ISO Line Out box. That has a Level control as well as phase flip switch. That is my line level into the rack.

And also, Line Levels are not all created equal it would appear. Look for @psychodave thread about an old line out box Suhr custom built for him before they even made the production Line Out box. I know my rig sounded better when I switched to using just the production Suhr ISO box for the line level signal.
 
SpiderWars said:
Does the Suhr RL have a Line Out Level control for the Line Out? If not, you are sort of at the mercy of how much power the tube amp is delivering for the level of your Line Out signal. My reactive load is a Rivera and it doesn’t have a Line Out Level control. So my cranked Super Lead yielded a really hot Line Out level. My solution was to use a second speaker cable to a Suhr ISO Line Out box. That has a Level control as well as phase flip switch. That is my line level into the rack.

And also, Line Levels are not all created equal it would appear. Look for @psychodave thread about an old line out box Suhr custom built for him before they even made the production Line Out box. I know my rig sounded better when I switched to using just the production Suhr ISO box for the line level signal.
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Yea it has a level control. It’ll work well
 
Bxlxaxkxe said:
Yea it has a level control. It’ll work well
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Maybe it was the IR one that didn’t, or maybe I’m just not remembering right. My Rivera miniRocRec has a level control but it only works for the cabsim output and not for the Line Out. Which to me makes no sense but maybe there is a reason for it.

And fwiw, taking a super hot line out level and sending that thru a Suhr ISO Line Out box…sounds like horse poop.
 
SpiderWars said:
Does the Suhr RL have a Line Out Level control for the Line Out? If not, you are sort of at the mercy of how much power the tube amp is delivering for the level of your Line Out signal. My reactive load is a Rivera and it doesn’t have a Line Out Level control. So my cranked Super Lead yielded a really hot Line Out level. My solution was to use a second speaker cable to a Suhr ISO Line Out box. That has a Level control as well as phase flip switch. That is my line level into the rack.

And also, Line Levels are not all created equal it would appear. Look for @psychodave thread about an old line out box Suhr custom built for him before they even made the production Line Out box. I know my rig sounded better when I switched to using just the production Suhr ISO box for the line level signal.
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yeah it does have the line out level control, in fact that's the only control the Suhr RL has. I haven't found a better sounding loadbox than the SRL yet, but I'm always open to try something different. I do notice I seem to have less gain when I go through it and then into my DAW (no matter which IR loader or IR) than I do when going through a real cab, or an attenuator first then the cab. I don't get the same amount of chug like I do when going through a real cab. I always have to boost when recording direct.
 
Soundstorm said:
yeah it does have the line out level control, in fact that's the only control the Suhr RL has. I haven't found a better sounding loadbox than the SRL yet, but I'm always open to try something different. I do notice I seem to have less gain when I go through it and then into my DAW (no matter which IR loader or IR) than I do when going through a real cab, or an attenuator first then the cab. I don't get the same amount of chug like I do when going through a real cab. I always have to boost when recording direct.
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I thought the SRL sounded good too. I went full dog-chasing-tail circle. SRL then PS2 then SRL/IR then MiniRocRec. They all sounded good!

I forgot to mention I also use the Duncan Powerstage 200. It gets the job done but I haven’t compared with others. In this application I don’t want tubey goodness, I want the highest highs and lowest lows and everything between all in the right proportions. The tone controls on the Powerstage are somewhat useful there…not perfect tho.
 
I use tube amps > Suhr RL > EQ and effects > SS poweramp > 4x12s in the studio all the time. Sounds fantastic.

If I really want to shake the earth I’ll swap out the SS poweramp with a VHT 2/90/2. It rules.

The level control on the front of the Suhr works very well and sounds great with both SS and tube poweramps.
 
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TheGreatGreen said:
I use tube amps > Suhr RL > EQ and effects > SS poweramp > 4x12s in the studio all the time. Sounds fantastic.

If I really want to shake the earth I’ll swap out the SS poweramp with a VHT 2/90/2. It rules.

The level control on the front of the Suhr works very well and sounds great with both SS and tube poweramps.
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I’m looking for something for bedroom levels only. What SS power amp are you using?

Any thoughts on the Orange Pedal Baby?
 
The SRL IR also has the hi cut switch which is handy for taming the double impedance curves of amp slaving. There were rumors of Suhr releasing their own version of the power station. I've been waiting patiently for years!
 
Meeotch said:
The SRL IR also has the hi cut switch which is handy for taming the double impedance curves of amp slaving. There were rumors of Suhr releasing their own version of the power station. I've been waiting patiently for years!
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This one’s the non IR version, only has the DI output level control
 
Soundstorm said:
I’m looking for something for bedroom levels only. What SS power amp are you using?

Any thoughts on the Orange Pedal Baby?
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I use a Matrix GT1000FX most of the time, but they’re not making those right now.

I also use an ISP Stealth poweramp for very low levels and portability. It’s a very small (half a rack space wide, 1U height) and not very expensive class AB solid state stereo poweramp and it’s pretty much perfect for bedroom volumes. I’d easily recommend that for just messing around the house at anything between TV and “bedroom loud” volumes.

I don’t have any experience with the Orange Pedal Baby.
 
Bxlxaxkxe said:
Yea it has a level control. It’ll work well
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Hey Blake, I've seen a number of your vids where you're using the Suhr RL. Have you compared the balanced vs the unbalanced outs on the Suhr and what's your take on them? Which do you use? I'm finding I'm having to use a lot more gain when going direct to gain the same amount of chug that I do in the room, even at really low levels through the cab.
 
Soundstorm said:
Hey Blake, I've seen a number of your vids where you're using the Suhr RL. Have you compared the balanced vs the unbalanced outs on the Suhr and what's your take on them? Which do you use? I'm finding I'm having to use a lot more gain when going direct to gain the same amount of chug that I do in the room, even at really low levels through the cab.
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You know man I probably should experiment with that but I’ve only ever used the unbalanced out
 
SpiderWars said:
I thought the SRL sounded good too. I went full dog-chasing-tail circle. SRL then PS2 then SRL/IR then MiniRocRec. They all sounded good!

I forgot to mention I also use the Duncan Powerstage 200. It gets the job done but I haven’t compared with others. In this application I don’t want tubey goodness, I want the highest highs and lowest lows and everything between all in the right proportions. The tone controls on the Powerstage are somewhat useful there…not perfect tho.
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I'm considering the Powerstage 170 (actually what I meant to put in the thread title, not "power block"), how does it perform at bedroom levels? My concern is that with that much power the volume control will be touchy and the level will jump around dramatically.
 
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